Wow - nobody's compiled a list like THAT before. Were others, like me, unaware that this franchise had made some bad decisions on draft day?
In hindsight I'm not sure if Oden isn't a bigger bust than Bowie. At least Bowie was productive for a number of years, and although Jordan is better than Durant, if we'd drafted Jordan he wouldn't have fit as well next to Drexler as Durant would have fit next to Aldridge. Meh, I'm tired of thinking about it. Both drafts sucked hard, to paraphrase Sheed.
I think the opposite. Drexler and Jordan would've been Pippen and Jordan, but better. Of course, Pippen had a better defensive mindset (Drexler's idea of defense was watching on TV)..
Jordan and Drexler >>> Durant and Aldridge Those two years of a healthy Roy would have been really fun though.
The idiocy of listing Martin as less of a draft bust than various double-digit picks (like Trajan Langdon and Sean May) invalidates the entire list.
Jordan/Drexler would have been epic. Roy/Durant/Aldridge would have been amazing.... Hell, even Durant/Aldridge would have been amazing, no guarantee of a championship. Jordan/Drexler would have won multiple championships for us.
Jordan would have forced Drexler into one of two scenarios. 1) Drexler would have worked at the maniacal level the Jordan expects (see Pippen) and the Blazers win multiple titles. 2) Drexler would have been his normal unmotivated self, and either he or Jordan would have forced their way out of Portland after Jordan finally attacked Drexler on the practice court. Clyde and MJ would have been disastrous, IMO, based on Jordan's personality, and Clyde's aloof nature. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think that Jordan ever really respected Drexler, and took extra steps to humiliate Clyde on the court during the 1992 Dream Team practices.
And during the 92 Olympics, Jordan and Pippen purposely shut down and dominated Toni Kukoc. They seemed to be OK as teammates.
I don't think respect had anything to do with it. Jordan was and is all about being the best ever. Clyde was considered his best competition for a while, so Jordan took it as a personal affront that anyone could be compared to him. I don't think it mattered if it was Clyde or anyone else, Jordan would go out of his way to destroy them so that people knew MJ was the best.
Not that I doubt that Jordan "humiliated" Drexler during the Olympic practices, but I never heard that. Was that in a book or something?
It would've been immediately apparent that MJ was better and we would've traded Drexler. All sorts of good players we could've gotten for him including Pippen.
Toni Kukoc was a bench player who was coming into Jordan's team. I'm not sure how what you posted has anything to do with Jordan's and Drexler's personalities clashing. Drexler took the path of least resistance and relied on natural talent. Jordan had perhaps a little bit less natural talent than Drexler, but worked himself into being the greatest player in the history of the game.
Yes. I'm shocked if most hardcore NBA fans haven't read it. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dream-team-jack-mccallum/1110779125?ean=9780345520494
Jordan showing dominance over another player, who wasn't his teammate, doesn't = him doing that as a (hypothetical) Blazer.
